Various application programs provide a computer user information about the reporting structure of an organization in a graphical or organization chart format. For example, Robertson et al. in U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0030703 A1 describe creating and displaying a visual hierarchy of data objects. The objects may be individuals in an organization. The display of an object or person within a first hierarchy can be gradually transformed or morphed into the display of the same object or person within a second hierarchy. Techniques are described to morph between first and second hierarchies.
Lowry, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,617 describes rendering a hierarchical graphical listing or chart on a display. Further information may be retrieved from a database record leaving plural fields by selecting a node on the chart.
McFarlane et al., in U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0,111,887 A1 describe using an organization chart to provide summary reports of employee online activity. The summary reports include information on the employee as well as all other employees under the employee in the company organizational structure.
Other programs are available for drawing an organization chart using ‘drag and drop’ techniques or to create charts based on target individuals. The publication “Organization Charting Software” by Advanced Personnel Systems, P.O. Box 1438, Roseville, Calif. 95648 dated 2002 describes such programs.
Yasutaka also describes in Japanese patent abstract 08329156A, a device for preparing an organization chart by decoding hierarchical parameters in an organization plan data base.
Hess, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,867 describes an interactive computer display system for manipulating a hierarchy of information. A hierarchical arrangement of information is constructed with a minimum of steps and errors.
The abstract of Japanese patent 2001350883A to Okura Osamu describes an organization chart processor for displaying an organization chart on the screen of a display device. A user may input a ‘movement’ causing the processor to update the contents of a personnel database. Also an official announcement of the change is prepared, printed, and stored in a history file.
Masahiro describes in Japanese patent abstract 08329156A, an organization chart processor that prepares an organization chart in a tree structure from data in an employee master file. The processor also reads out an employee's face photograph from a face photograph file or other personal information from the employee master file and displays these on the organization chart.
Computer users in hierarchical organizations such as industrial companies, service organizations, educational organizations, non-profit companies, and the like frequently want to understand how a particular individual in their organization relates to themselves on the organization chart. Answering this question is a difficult process with all of the above described systems and methods, requiring multiple searches or scrolling up and down management chains. The larger the organization, the more difficult the task becomes because only a small part of the overall organization chart may be viewed on a computer screen at any given time. A system which rapidly and easily shows the relationship between only two individuals in an organization would therefore constitute a significant advancement in the art.
In addition to showing the relationship between two individuals, a user typically wishes to learn more about the second individual as well as those in their respective and common manager chains. It is therefore a desirable feature to have the ability to easily request individual profile data or graphics, photograph, or the like for any such individual by merely clicking on an individual name, or an icon, or selection button associated with an individual name. For example, in the Lowry patent listed above one may request additional information by selecting a node on a hierarchical chart.
Recently presence technology systems and methods have been developed. For example, Cuomo et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,328, describe providing information to a target user about other users in an online environment. The target user is informed as other users enter or leave the networked environment. The target user may be notified through use of a list where other users' names appear or change color as they log onto or off of the network. An audio signal may also be used to alert the target user to another user's change in status. U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,328 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Instant messaging systems such as SAMETIME® product (SAMETIME is a trademark of IBM Corporation) provided by IBM Corporation of Armonk, N.Y. include such a presence information display in a window on a user's computer screen.
In addition to a person's on-line status, presence technology as described by Lisa Guernsey in the New York Times article “You Can Surf, but You Can't Hide” dated Feb. 7, 2002, may also show whether another person's phone is in use, or for a cellular telephone, whether it is even turned on. According to Guernsey, presence technology is also being considered for hand-held computers, wireless Web pads, communication systems in cars, or nearly any wired or wireless device of the future including household appliances or exercise machines at the gym. Some planned systems will use tracking systems like the Global Positioning System (GPS) to detect the location of a person who is logged on.
Glenn et al. describe, in U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0021307 A1, a method of displaying a presence indicator if a user is connected to an interconnection fabric. The method also provides for initiating an instantaneous communication interface to an initiating user when the presence indicator is selected and the receiving user is connected to the interconnection fabric.
It would therefore be a highly desirable and inventive feature if the desired relationship chart above could include presence information about the second individual and those in their respective and common manager chains. Furthermore it would be highly desirable if the first individual could establish communication with any of those persons on the relationship chart by selecting a presence indicator associated with that individual.